Fishing by Numbers

The staircase was relatively comfortable. Alex had the upper floor, with stargazing potential, while I occupied the lower. We headed into town pretty early to find breakfast, but just as we settled down realised that we had picked a busy school route and all of the food stands disappeared as soon as the school bells had rung, while we were enjoying a pre meal drink… We relocated and our problems were solved, so we hit the road on a full stomach having tried out the local delicious vegetable, the water chestnut: looks like a mushroom, tastes like coconut (sort of).

A kind shopkeeper gave us some of her vegetables and loo roll as we cycled out and we headed on for forty kilometres to a town we hit just at lunchtime. While waiting for Alex, I was asked many a time where we would be eating, and no offers having been offered, I invited ourselves to join them instead. What a great plan: they were delighted at the idea and we met all the friends, a constant stream of people coming though the restaurant for a photo while we ate…

After lunch, we decided to join one of the men in his daily hobby of fishing. His job entails no work, so he spends the morning in the market chatting, and the afternoon fishing! Once we got to the lake, however, fishing it was not. The lake was nearly dry and had thousands of fish in, all gasping for water while drowning in mud, and the Chinese men trawled it by foot with a big net and without any difficulty filled at least a hundred buckets of fish. The same exercise was carried out a few times until they stopped for dinner when the sun came down. It was interesting, though confusing, so any fishing experts are welcome to let us know what they think: the biggest five or six fish were sold, the smallest were eaten, and the 99% remaining thrown into another lake…?

We returned to town to find a hotel room had been booked for us, a wonderful treat which we enjoyed to the full!